The light at the end of the Tunnel
by iamsusan
Summary: Three months since Abby, Conner and Danny went through. Will Sarah and Becker ever get them back? Eventual SarahxBecker but it's not the main focus. Will also include Abby, Conner and Danny.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N This is my first fanfic for Primeval. Please be kind. I dont own Primeval. If I did Stephen would still be alive and Helen would have been shot a long time ago. Mind you I love Stephens replacement. Go Becker!**

So close.

In her more poetic moments Dr Sarah Page had been known to work out metaphors for the anomalies that she now worked on.

Shining stars in the dark night she could call her life.

The candle in the window on a winter night.

Neither of these seemed to accurately describe her situation. Ah…

The light at the end of her own personal tunnel. That seemed about right.

Because no matter what predators lay beyond the anomaly, no matter how many teeth or tentacles or even how many Helen Cutters there could be out there, behind every anomaly lay hope.

"Sarah, run!" The cry brought her out of her reverie and back to reality with a jolt. She realized with horror she was slowing down and redoubled her sprint.

So close. Twenty meters.

She could swear she could feel hot breath on her back.

Ten

Ahead the anomaly shone like a shattered star.

Five

A shadow rose ahead of her.

Two

One Giant leap through, landing in a heap on the stone flagons that paved the abandoned church they had found the anomaly in.

A church that now looked like…hell was the only word to describe it.

Well a herd of rampaging Stegosaurus will do that to a building.

"Seal it Sam! Seal it!" A flustered young woman hit the button and a globe encased the anomaly.

"Everyone alive then? No one a dinosaur chew toy? Jolly Good!"

* * *

In the truck on the way back to the ARC there was a frosty silence. She may have the front seat these days but she could feel the weight of Becker's anger physically crushing her. Sneaking a look at him she could see his knuckles were white on the steering wheel. She sighed. This hadn't been easy on him.

It was three months since Abby, Conner and Danny had gone missing. When they had realized something was wrong, Lester had authorized a massive search. All of the ARC resources were concentrated on tracking them down. After a month when it became obvious they weren't going to be found the search was scaled back dramatically. Reluctantly the two remaining team members had agreed to leave the hunt and form a new team. She knew Becker felt guilty for letting them go. He had been charged with protecting the team and he had let them go into probably the most dangerous period of time ever, unprotected.

The noise of the handbrake shook her out of her reverie. They were back at the ARC. The team, correction, the new team, filed out of the back row. As Sarah made to follow Becker's hand on her wrist stopped her.

"Sarah, Wait" The severity in her voice made her wince. She waited until all the others were back in the main building before turning to face the angry man in the driver's seat. The last thing they needed was to let the new team see them fighting.

"Yes? What is it?" She asked, trying to inject as much innocence into her voice as humanly possible.

"You know damn well what it is. That was a routine job. There was no need to go through that anomaly!" His voice was quiet but deadly, full of barely contained anger.

"We needed more information about the era. We could only get that by going through!" She felt her defenses rise.

"Sarah, I'm no paleontologist but I'm fairly sure that Stegosaurus only comes from one era of history! This isn't the first time you've jumped through an anomaly either."

"I just thought we ought to check, that's all." She said, studiously ignoring his last remark.

"So why did you run off from the rest of us? Were you trying to get yourself killed?" His voice shook with anger.

"No I was-"She bit down on the sentence before it betrayed her.

"You were what?" When she didn't answer he sighed "Are you looking for them?" Her silence confirmed it. He sounded more resigned than angry now. "Why Sarah? The chances of finding them are-"

"Yes, Miniscule. I know!" She was shouting now. "But I have to do something! I can't just leave them."

"Sarah we have to. We have to carry on their work"

"You're talking like they're dead!"

"Sarah I don't like this any more than you, but they probably are dead! "

"Don't you feel at all guilty for leaving them?" Her voice was quiet but the question snapped through the air like a whip.

"Of course I do. But we can't keep throwing ourselves through anomalies to try and find them." His voice softened a little "Sarah. I've lost so many people on this job. I can't lose you as well."

"I'm sorry" She said feeling guiltier than ever."I'll be more careful" If they had been dogs their hackles would have been settling.

"Thank you" he replied in a grim voice "If I see one more person turned into dinosaur fodder…"

"Okay. Look I've got a couple of things I need to do so I'll see you later. Okay?"

"Yes, go ahead" He said sounding distracted. Sarah slid out of her chair and headed to her office leaving one defeated looking soldier behind her.

* * *

Becker leaned back in his seat, exhaust etched into every line on his face. It was harder than it looked being team leader. Especially when his second-in-command kept throwing herself through any and every anomaly she could find.

He hadn't wanted to be team leader. He didn't feel able to step into the shoes of Nick Cutter or Danny Quinn. Or even Jenny Lewis, brief as her leadership had been. They all had…flair. They managed to contain anomalies without sacrificing anyone. He had been ready to close off anomalies with people on the other side more than once now. He was too military for the job. He saw defensive and offensive points, targets and acceptable losses. He wasn't right for this job.

He had frequently found himself wishing that his special forces training had included a "how to take over a team when your superior has just been killed" unit. Actually it had but the assumption had been that it would be a) on some godforsaken battlefield where all you had to concentrate on was survival and b) temporary. Not in a well appointed, high tech, research centre just outside London where you spent all day stopping monsters from rampaging over the country.

Perhaps he could suggest it be included.

The thought made him smile for the first time in days. Jumping out of the cab of the ARC van, he headed for his office, his mind on the day he had been made team leader.

_A month after Danny, Abby and Conner had disappeared; Lester had called Becker and Sarah into his office. _

"_Look" He had said "We can't keep this up. We have to deal with the anomalies; we can't keep looking for them"_

"_But Sir-"Becker tried to cut in_

"_No Captain, listen to me. I didn't want to do this but were giving up the search. "This time it was Sarah that interrupted him._

"_Sir you can't! We can't just give up!"_

"_Yes Dr. Page we can and we are. I had hoped not to have to do this yet again, but…Captain Becker, I am making you team leader. Dr Page will be your second. I want the two of you to form a new team. I have left the relevant files in Mr. Qui-Your office Captain. "Lester had sighed. "Don't get too comfortable Captain. It doesn't seem to be a job with a long life expectancy. "_

Assembling a team hadn't taken long. He and Sarah had spent a couple of days perusing Lester's possibilities, eventually choosing three people to replace their friends.

Connors role as "Techspert" had been easiest to fill. Samantha Mewner was an experienced  
twenty-something computer programmer and technology enthusiast. She had already improved the anomaly detector, allowing them to get to the site even faster. She wore thick glasses that seemed to filter out everything except hard drives and gigabytes. Sometimes Becker wondered if the fact that they chased prehistoric monsters around had even registered with Sam.

Abby had been harder to replace. Very few people had her level of skill with animals and sufficient discretion to keep the secret. Eventually they had settled on Derek Lewel who combined incredible animal handling skills with sarcasm that rivaled Lester. Thirty, Bitter and Bearded, he didn't seem to care about anything except his animals.

Filling his own role as team security, Becker had selected an old friend from basic training. Captain Ryan Stuartson had long been known for his excellent service record and so far under his careful eye no one had died. Amazing considering the trouble Sarah kept throwing herself into.

They were good. They were efficient. But that was all.

There was none of the camaraderie that had bound the others together. None of the friendship or little feuds. No Conner to make them laugh. No Abby to smack Conner when he got too boisterous. No Danny to make crass comments or try heroics.

On paper he knew his new team was much better but…He and Sarah still missed the old team.

* * *

It had been a long day for Sarah. She had been trying to research the origins of the Kelpie, a Scottish legend, when the anomaly alert had gone off. After playing sheepdog to a herd of Stegosaurus', nearly getting eaten back in the Jurassic and having an argument with Becker, she was well ready to go home and soak in a long bath. With cake.

Mmmh…that sounded good. Cake and a bath. Massaging her aching shoulders with one hand she began to pack up. She loved her job but some days it just got too stressful.

Funny. There seemed to be more of those days since they had lost Abby, Conner and Danny.

Keys and bag in hand she headed for her car. This was when the Anomaly detector went off. Sighing she turned around and headed for the main room.

Sam was sitting on the stool, trying to track it to its source.

"Nearly…just triangulating…got it!" She turned to face the team triumphantly. "Forest of Dean!"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N I am taking the history of the anomaly project here to be what was shown in season one, minus the existance of Claudia Brown. See Chapter One for disclaimer.**

Tracking what was probably a Sycosaurus through the forest of Dean, which none of them knew their way around, in the dark, with soldiers who weren't allowed to shoot it, in case that messed up the fabric of reality, again, wasn't exactly how Derek Lewel had planned on spending his evening.

Following the giant footprints wasn't hard. It was trying to stay quiet enough not to alert something big, angry and probably hungry to their position that was hard. Every time someone stepped on a twig, the special forces would glare at them. Someone had coughed a minute ago and Captain Stuartson had nearly shot them.

Derek had no idea how much tranquilizer this creature would need so he had settled for a lot. So there was a chance that either it wouldn't be enough and the creature would kill them all or it would be too much, killing the creature, changing evolution and causing them all to disappear from existence.

"Why didn't I just become an accountant?" he muttered.

Truth was he found this job…odd. When you get a call from someone claiming to be the British Home Secretary saying that they need your skills for a top secret government project you expected something a bit more full on.

Sure there were days when he got to stop evolution from folding in on itself and chase dinosaurs around. But most anomalies were weeks, if not months between. Two in one day was so rare as to be worrying.

He could tell that Becker and Dr Page were worried. He had only heard snippets about what had happened before he arrived but the name Helen Cutter had come up a lot in what he'd heard. The captain and the doctor had been talking when they first arrived at the site.

"Two in one day Becker. That's really rare."

"I know. It's almost suspicious"

"You don't think this is something to do with Helen Cutter?"

"I hope not. Danny, Abby and Conner went back to stop her."

"But we don't know if they succeeded. She could be behind this."

He wondered about asking who this Helen Cutter was and what the old team had tried to stop her doing. Then again he knew that he'd come up against the wall of silence that seemed to have been erected around the disappearance of the old team. He, Sam and Stuartson supposedly had top level security clearance, but no one would tell them anything about the history of the anomaly project. It was both annoying and insulting.

Distracted, he managed to stub his toe on a tree trunk. He swore loudly and the entire special forces team turned to glare at him. Captain Stuartson stalked over to him.

"Do that again and I will use you as dinosaur bait" he hissed.

Tired, cold and grumpy Derek turned his mind back to the search.

* * *

Picking his way through the dark forest, Captain Ryan Stuartson was in his element.

This was what he had been trained for. This was what he had joined Special Forces to do.

Okay so he'd always presumed he would be tracking down terrorists or something human at least rather than Dinosaurs but still. The principal was the same.

That was when he heard the noise. It was a very organic noise. He tried to place it…It sounded almost like something…being…eaten.

"We've found it" he whispered to Becker. "I can hear it."

The group made its way quietly towards the sound. A huge shape came into sight, its mouth in what appeared to be an animal corpse of some kind. Derek edged to the front of the group taking careful aim with his tranquilizer gun.

Then someone sneezed.

And all hell broke loose.

The Sycosaurus roared as it wheeled around to face them, charging the group. Bullets flashed as the soldiers tried to defend themselves, enraging the creature further. It began snapping at the soldiers who only narrowly avoided the monstrous jaws.

As the soldiers began to fall back they scrambled up trees, hoping to escape the beast.

Desperately trying to keep some kind of order amongst his men, Stuartson saw Derek lining up a shot. He could see what would happen next. Derek would shoot, miss, and the dinosaur would wheel around and eat him.

Derek squeezed the trigger. By some miracle the shot went in.

As the Sycosaurus turned towards Derek it began collapse, falling to one side and landing, unconscious at the feet of the shocked zoologist.

"Yep. Should've become an accountant"

* * *

Back at the anomaly site Sam was getting some very unusual readings. If she believed what her screen was telling her then there were two more anomalies within a hundred meters. But given that she could see that distance but no anomalies she concluded that her detector must be broken.

"Piece of junk" She muttered as she put it into her bag. She took out the detector that Conner Temple had built. It wasn't as powerful as her upgraded one but at least this one wasn't showing phantom anomalies.

Unlike her other teammates she had actually known her predecessor. Not closely; she was just a lab tech at the ARC and he had been the lab techs hero. Proof that sometimes the nerdy guy gets the cool job. Still although she had known the truth about the anomalies for longer than her new teammates she had never been privy to any classified information. She knew that Helen Cutter was the bad guy, but no specifics.

She turned her attention back to her laptop. She would mend her detector when she got home but until then she would have to distract herself by working through some of the ideas she had had to strengthen the anomaly sealer.

Let's see…if she tweaked this logarithm, she could recalibrate this electrode, which would increase the power by this much…

"Which would result in all of us dying as it overloads and explodes" she said ruefully

"Ma'am?" One of the soldiers left with her gave her a curious look.

"Nothing." She reassured him. "Just thinking aloud" Her brain began ticking over

Hmm…now if that equilibrium could be shifted to the side….

* * *

Sarah felt vaguely guilty about what she was about to do. She had told Becker that she would stop but it was almost an addiction for her. She couldn't stop.

"Sam" She approached the anomaly where Sam had her head buried in her laptop. "Sam I want you to open that anomaly." Sam looked up, with a strange expression on her face.

"Sorry, Dr Page but Captain Becker told me I'd be fired if I let you go through" Sarah cursed inwardly. Damn overprotective soldier.

"Call me Sarah. And I have orders from Becker to go through. So open it up."

"I'd rather wait until I heard that from Becker" Why hadn't they chosen a techie with less backbone?

"Ma'am" the soldier cut in. "I can't let you go through alone. Captains Becker and Stuartson will be furious."

"So come with me." Her voice was daring.

"What I mean ma'am is I'm not going to let you go through that anomaly."

Sarah was mentally calculating the odds of her successfully unlocking the anomaly and running through without Sam or the soldier stopping her. A million to one, probably. She sighed with frustration.

Just then Becker and Derek arrived back at the anomaly site.

"Sarah we have to get back to the ARC. Lester wants to see us now." She knew by the look in Becker's eyes that he knew exactly what she was trying to do.

"But it's the middle of the night. And we aren't finished here. And where is the Sycosaurus?"

"It's five am. By the time we get back it'll be about seven. Derek and Sam can finish up here and the Sycosaurus currently has a zoo's worth of tranquilizer running through it while Captain Stuartson tries to figure out how to get it back here. Let's go."

* * *

On the two hour journey back to the ARC Sarah was expecting a huge argument. She was already working out her defenses. But to her surprise he only said one thing.

"Sarah. You promised."

* * *

When they arrived back at the ARC the sky was beginning to lighten a little. Even this early the building was occupied. The soldiers, a few lab techs who looked like they'd pulled an all night shift, a couple of miscellaneous home office employees and of course Lester.

They entered his office, a sense of foreboding hanging over them. Lester had never called anyone away from an anomaly site for a meeting since they'd been on the team. It was curious. And worrying.

"Captain Becker, Dr Page. Please sit down. Now, as we have no members of the original team remaining in the twenty first century I presume the two of you don't know the history of the forest of Dean?"

"Of course sir" said Sarah "The area was inhabited in Mesolithic times, and there are also remains of later megalithic monuments including-"

"No Dr Page, I am referring to the anomalies. None of the others ever told you about the anomalies there?"

"No sir."

"The first anomaly that we dealt with was in the forest of Dean. A predator escaped and destroyed a house and a school among other things. A PR nightmare, the papers had a field day."

"So this isn't the first time an anomaly has been found there?"

"No. Not long after that, the anomaly reopened and future predators broke through. We don't know for sure but I have intelligence that suggests that Helen Cutter first entered the past through an anomaly in the forest." He paused briefly. "And more disturbingly if Cutter was telling the truth about changing the past and this Claudia Brown person, then the change occurred through that anomaly. Essentially every time that anomaly has appeared it's caused trouble. Right now trouble is the last thing this unit needs. I need this dealt with before something else goes wrong."

"What do you want us to do about it sir?" asked Becker.

"I've no idea. Whatever it is you people actually do. Run around making a lot of noise and scaring people I suppose. Incidentally, what creature came through this time? "

"A Sycosaurus sir. From the Permian era." You could have heard a pin drop.

"Permian era" he said in a low voice. "Are you sure?"

"Yes sir. Derek and Sam identified the creature and apparently it only comes from that era of history." Sarah said. "Is something wrong sir?"

"The Permian Era and nothing going wrong go together about as well as the European Union and a non standardised Banana. I want this dealt with. Quickly and quietly."

"Yes sir"

"Yes sir"

* * *

As he watched them leave Lester was more worried than he cared to admit. The Permian era and the Forest of Dean had been constantly repeating nightmares for them. If it had opened again something bad, expensive and probably incurring lots of paperwork was going to happen.

He wasn't a physicist and he had next to no interest in how the anomalies worked. But still you couldn't work with Nick Cutter for that long and not pick up some idea about the science. Maybe, time was weaker in the Forest? More subjective?

He brushed the thoughts from his mind. He hired other people to think about that sort of thing. Turning back to his paperwork he tried to ignore the vague sense of foreboding nagging at the edges of his mind.

* * *

Back at the anomaly site, Sam was trying to figure out what was going on with her detector. It was registering the nonexistent anomalies and actually taking readings from them.

One of the anomalies showing seemed to be fluctuating wildly. The readings were rapidly approaching critical when suddenly....

In a burst of white light, space and time ripped itself open.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Sorry this took so long! a) I had major writers block and b) I couldn't write Connor very convincingly. I'm still not sure if I have. Let me know in a review (HINT HINT)**

The hunter moved through the night with deadly swiftness.

"Argh!"

Or at least he did right up until he tripped over a tree route and went face first into the ground.

"Connor!" Abby hissed. "Come on, get up"

"Sorry, sorry" Connor sat up rubbing his ankle. "Where'd it go?"

They had been tracking lunch for a few miles now. They were both loath to kill unless they absolutely had to, but the emergency rations in their packs had run out after about a week. After that they knew they had to start hunting.

"Probably well away by now." Abby sighed. "Come on let's get back to camp."

The sun was rising as Abby and Connor headed back to their makeshift home. They tried to limit their hunting trips to just before dawn, to avoid the cold blooded dinosaurs. To begin with Abby had headed out alone, but as Connor's ankle began to mend and strengthen, he had started coming out with her. Some trips were successful, but more often than not they came back empty handed.

Trying to ignore the hunger pangs in their stomachs, the two of them reached their camp. They had realized after a few days in the cretaceous that the anomaly probably wouldn't re-open, and they were going to need a more permanent shelter. They had moved to a taller tree, built a basic platform and canopy, and surrounded the base of the tree with rings of sharpened branches. Not the best dinosaur proofing in the world but it was better than nothing. They climbed into the tree and settled into their customary positions; Connor futilely attempting to mend the anomaly opener, Abby recording the previous day's events in their journal. The journal was a bone of contention between them. Connor insisted it only depressed Abby and she should give it up, Abby on the other hand was adamant that when they were rescued it would advance scientific knowledge by decades.

And it was an anchor to the twenty first century. She couldn't give it up.

"Toast" announced Connor abruptly.

"With Marmalade" agreed Abby. This was a game they had developed in the early days, naming what they missed from the twenty first century most at that moment.

"And Tabasco sauce" countered Connor.

"Please tell me that was a joke. Marmalade and Tabasco sauce?"

"It's really good. You should try it when we get home" Neither of them was ready to replace the "when" with an "if" just yet.

"No thanks. I'll stick to just marmalade"

"Your loss" Connor looked up from the device. "Actually I think I'd give up everything right now for a screwdriver"

"Hear, hear" muttered Abby. Trying to mend the device in the twenty first century would have been hard enough. Seventy million years in the past was going to be impossible.

Sighing Abby looked back through the journal.

_Day 3, Full moon_

_We've been sat in this tree for two days now. Connor sleeps most of the time; his ankle is giving him a lot of pain. Rations are down to beef jerky, a bar of chocolate and a few packets of crisps. We're low on water too- I'm going to have to look for a stream of some sort soon. _

_The flora and fauna here is incredible. There's so much more diversity than back in the twenty-first. The Dinosaurs are amazing when they aren't trying to eat us. There are kinds here that even Connor can't identify and that's just what we can see from sitting in this tree. _

_The Anomaly shows no signs of reopening. I wonder what happened to Danny. Since we are still here we can assume that Helen failed to wipe humanity out of existence, so he must have been successful. But what did it cost him? _

_Sarah, Becker, wherever, whenever you are, I hope you can find a way to bring us home._

Flipping on a couple of pages of carefully drawn dinosaur sketches and a few pressed leafs she found another entry.

_Day 6, Gibbous moon (waning)_

_I ventured out of the tree today. Found a stream so I topped up our water supplies. I've been thinking we should probably set up some kind of more permanent camp, and I found a tree that looks pretty good for it. I managed to persuade Connor, so we're heading out there early morning tomorrow. _

_I've been wondering about what to do with our food situation. I really don't want to start hunting and risk completely messing up the future but I don't see that we have a choice. I tried a load of leaves but I don't think they were edible. Not if the vomiting was any indication. _

_Day 9, last quarter_

_I'm shattered. I had to climb the tree, fix up a rope and hoist Connor into the tree. I don't even want to think about how much I still have to do to make this an actual habitable place. Before we left the old tree, I built a cairn. We should be able to recognize the site now. Or Sarah and Becker will realize we're nearby. Hopefully. _

_Day 10, crescent moon (waning)_

_I hoisted a few logs into the tree. They make a very basic platform, but it's better than nothing. _

_I've come to the conclusion we have to hunt. If not we're going to starve to death, and some archeologist will get really upset when they find fossilized human bones from the cretaceous. _

_I will head out early tomorrow morning. I really don't want to do it but I don't see we have a choice._

She remembered her first hunting trip. She had set out early morning with sharpened stick in one hand and a knife in the other. But her lack of experience as a hunter had caused her to wonder out of the forest and into the meadow where the herbivores were grazing. The sight of all these gentle giants was incredible and she had simply stood there staring for a few minutes.

Tearing herself away from the sight she had seen some kind of small mammal with its snout buried in the ground. Positioning herself downwind of the creature, she had thrown the improvised spear, and creeping closer to the injured animal had put it out of its misery using the knife.

Killing the creature had been one thing, but cooking it was another. Connor had pointed out when she had gotten it back to their tree that the smell would attract predators. They had worked quickly, skinning the animal and spitting it over the fire which they hoped would be an adequate deterrent to any predators.

The cooked meat had been quickly devoured and what little was left packed away for another day. The bone had been used to make better weapons and a few tools. And they had gone to sleep that night feeling full, happy and proactive.

Temporarily.

The next morning had been back to a desperate but fading hope that they could fix the device and go home.

Sighing again, Abby began to record today's trip in the battered book.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Sorry this took so long, Real life got in the way! This is a bit shorter but please let me know what you think anyway! See Chapter one for Disclaimer.**

_One of the anomalies showing seemed to be fluctuating wildly. The readings were rapidly approaching critical when suddenly...._

_In a burst of white light, space and time ripped itself open._

Several things happened at once. The shockwave generated by the opening anomaly , threw most of the group backwards, knocking over the anomaly locking device, causing the first anomaly to reopen. Captain Stuartson recovered first, jumping over to the fallen device, too late to stop the snarling ball of fur and teeth that came flying through the second anomaly and ran off into the forest. As the rest of the group extracated themselves from the heap they had fallen into, Stuartson, cursing, unhooked his radio from his belt and radioed his units stationed around the forest.

"All units, be aware we have another breach. Definite creature incursion, treat as dangerous."

Numerous acknowledgements came over the radio. Stuartson turned to his men.

"Alright move out. Do a grid sweep, radio sightings and co-ordinates in to me."As the units moved off, he turned to Derek "Derek do you have any tranquilizer left?"

"Not if you want me to keep this thing under. If you fancy trying to force it back through that anomaly, fully conscious and very angry, then you're welcome to it of course."

"Yes alright." replied Stuartson, annoyance clouding his voice. Sometimes the man got on his nerves. Setting his irritation aside, he turned to his radio "All units shoot to kill"

Sam and Derek were staring at him aghast.

"What about the nature of history and evolution?" Sam asked "We could mess up the past irreparably!"

"I'm more worried about my future. Specifically, the length of it." Under the intensity of their glare he resignedly clicked his radio back on "Belay that, all units, shoot to disable." Turning to Sam and Derek he scowled. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a...thing...to catch" With that Captain Stuartson disappeared off into the rapidly lightening forest.

"Damn Tree-huggers..." He muttered under his breath.

Watching the Captain stalk into the forest, Sam realised the enormous task that now lay ahead of them. They needed to get the Sycosaurus back to the Permian era-before the anomaly closed. She checked the readings on her laptop. So far the anomaly was stable but she knew it wouldn't last. And then there was the matter of the tranquilizer.

"How long are you going to be able to keep this thing out for?" She asked Derek who was examining the massive reptile.

"About an hour, I'd say, even with the extra tranquiliser." He said distractedly, lifting up the creature's eyelid "After that we will definitely be looking at a change of profession."

"To?"

"Ghost. Or angel, if you've been good."

* * *

Corporal Marie Bleckner stalked silently through the forest, following the grid line set for her. As a wet branch smacked her in the face, she swore under her breath. Whoever laid out the grid had it in for her, she decided. Her line had crossed several steams, went up and down hills and through the densest foliage she had seen in the forest of Dean.

Probably one of the men having a laugh. Oh so she thinks she's one of the lads eh? Lets test it out huh huh huh...Women were still a special forces minority, which always irritated her. What was the phrase...You can be any sex you want in the army provided you're a man.

How true.

Oh she could belch with the best of them but she was still a woman and still got treated like either a delicate flower, assigned the lightest possible duties, or as a wannabe man who got the dirtiest, messiest, most unpleasant jobs anyone could find. It was damn annoying.

She missed the days when she had been a part of the dessert squadron. The sand and heat had forged camaraderie in the group which no amount of angry dinosaurs could.

Plus, this job was playing hell with her friendships. When she was abroad, family and friends knew not to ask about her work, but she had been in Britain for over a year now and it was getting harder and harder to keep the many secrets that came with this job.

A slight rustling caught her attention. She peered through the dense foliage trying desperately to catch sight of a creature-anything.

Nothing. Wondering if she might have imagined it, she slowly unclipped her radio. Then she heard it again.

Then with a sense of foreboding she slowly turned around.

Furry death jumped out at her.

* * *

A brief burst of gunfire and a loud scream, cut off abruptly, had the special forces team abandon the grid search and begin racing to help their fallen colleague.

The black-clad soldiers arrived at the scene to see a barely conscious Marie lying on the ground, her gun several metres away. The creature, which looked like some kind of pre-historic wolf, turned to face the soldiers, hoping to defend its kill. It was limping slightly-Marie had managed to get a shot into its shoulder.

The wolf was in full fight-or-flight mode. Choosing the first option, it leaped snarling at the nearest soldier bearing him to the ground, trying to lock its powerful jaws around the struggling mans neck. The soldier yelled in pain as one of his colleagues knocked the creature on the back of its head with the butt of his rifle, before emptying half a dozen rounds into the wolf. The animal yelped, before collapsing on to the injured soldier, dying slowly. The soldiers dragged the wolf off of their colleague, and quickly put it out of its misery.

The soldiers hastened to check on their injured colleagues. The young man was mostly fine, superficial cuts mainly. Corporal Bleckner was in a worse state. Now fully unconscious, her cuts and bites went deep and judging by her laboured breathing she had a punctured lung. The team medic ran his hands over her torso, identifying a number of fractured ribs.

"We need to get her to a hospital, now" said the harried medic.

"We can have her airlifted to Gloucester hospital in a few minutes" replied a young corporal

"No. Right now air transportation could kill her. Where is the Captain?"

"On his way"

"Have him call for an ambulance. We have to remove her to somewhere ambulance accessible."

A stretcher was hurriedly constructed, and the woman was slowly carried to a clearing close enough to the edge of the forest to allow the paramedics in.

Captain Stuartson arrived in the clearing, assuring them that an ambulance was on its way, and that he had contacted Sarah and Becker, who were now on their way to Gloucester hospital.

When the ambulance arrived, Corporal Bleckner was loaded in. Captain Stuartson went with her.

As the van began to move off, guilt began to grow in the Captain's brain. He had assigned her that path. He should have taken it himself, it should be him on that stretcher, paramedics working over him, fighting for his life.

The siren seemed to be wired into his brain, every note dredging up fresh guilt


End file.
